The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposes to ban a cancer-causing chemical commonly used as a furniture cleaner and degreaser. The ban would prohibit most uses of trichloroethylene (TCE) within one year. Limited remaining commercial and industrial uses would be phased out over a longer period and would require stringent worker protections. “Today, EPA is taking a vital step in our efforts to advance President Biden’s Cancer Moonshot and protect people from cancer and other serious health risks,” said EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe. “The science is loud and clear on TCE. It is a dangerous toxic chemical and proposing to ban it will protect families, workers, and communities,” McCabe said in an agency news release. In addition to liver and kidney cancer, health risks associated with the toxin include disruption of the nervous and reproductive systems, and damage to fetal development, the EPA said. TCE is used in cleaning and furniture care products, degreasers, brake cleaners, and tire repair sealants. The EPA says safer alternatives exist. The proposal was made under the Toxic Substances Control Act. It would ban manufacturing, processing and distributing TCE for any use. “TCE has left a toxic legacy in communities across America. Today, EPA is taking a major step to protect people from exposure to this cancer-causing chemical,” said Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety…  read on >  read on >

Many college kids are depressed and anxious, especially when they are a minority on campus or the first in their family to go to a university, a new study finds. These feelings may be particularly pronounced among minorities attending mostly white colleges, the researchers reported. In that setting, more than half of Black and Hispanic students reported feelings of mild depression and 17% more said they were moderately to severely depressed. “College life has its own sets of challenges — during COVID there were high rates of depression and anxiety suggesting that social support is an important part of college life,” said lead researcher Janani Thapa. She is an associate professor at the University of Georgia’s School of Public Health in Athens. “We must continue efforts on belonging, to make each and every student feel at home,” Thapa added. Interestingly, the researchers found that students at mostly white universities reported similar anxiety levels, regardless of race, with more than 3 in 5 students saying they experienced mild to severe anxiety levels. At historically Black colleges, students who weren’t Black also experienced higher rates of anxiety and depression. For the study, Thapa and her colleagues collected data on more than 3,000 students during the pandemic who answered questions about feelings of hopelessness, sleep problems and lack of energy. Thapa’s team found that students who were the…  read on >  read on >

A virtual reality program helped hoarders clear out their clutter, researchers report. Hoarding disorder, which strikes more than 2.5% of Americans, has only been defined as a mental health condition for 10 years, and it’s both debilitating and hard to treat. So, researchers at Stanford Medicine recently conducted a small pilot study to see if a newer technology — virtual reality — could help patients practice the steps they would need to take to manage their condition. In the tiny study, a majority of the patients — 7 of 9 — reported an average decrease in symptoms of about 25%. In addition, 8 of the 9 participants had less clutter in their homes after the sessions, with an average decrease of 15%. “Part of what is important in translating the promise of virtual reality into the real world is these small proof-of-concept studies to say, ‘Is it feasible? Are participants going to be able to engage with the technology?’ And that wasn’t immediately evident that it would in this population, so having the data was really important,” explained senior study author Dr. Carolyn Rodriguez. She is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford Medicine in California. Among the reasons why it was uncertain whether virtual reality (VR) would work for patients is that many people with hoarding disorder are older and may not…  read on >  read on >

While U.S. policymakers have restricted flavored vapes to make e-cigarettes less appealing to young people, that plan may be backfiring. A new study found that for every 0.7 milliliters of “e-liquid” for e-cigarettes that isn’t sold because of flavor restrictions, an additional 15 traditional cigarettes were sold. The study, supported by U.S. National Institutes of Health, uncovered evidence that these extra cigarettes were being sold in brands that are popular with people 20 and younger. Flavor restriction policies may actually magnify the harms of nicotine rather than help, the authors said. “While neither smoking nor vaping is entirely safe, current evidence indicates substantively greater health harm from smoking than vaping nicotine products,” said first author Abigail Friedman, an associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health. “These policies’ public health costs may outweigh their benefits,” she said in a university news release. Policymakers focused on vapes because of their fruity and dessert-like flavors, which could make them appealing to young people. An outbreak of vaping-associated lung injuries in 2019 led to at least 68 deaths and thousands of hospitalizations. This led to restriction of vapes, though the primary cause of the outbreak was an additive most common in cannabis vaping products, according to the Yale School of Public Health. To study the impact of restrictions on flavored e-cigarette products, researchers evaluated sales of both…  read on >  read on >